wrote that sketch, would have shown him that Hastings had resigned his station in India, and come home in consequence of the disapprobation of his administration expressed by Pitt in Parliament. He did not look upon Pitt as a friend, and knew before his return that Pitt had several times indicated a morbid disinclination to shield him from the consequences of his questionable acts. Dundas, also, the most intimate friend of Pitt, and his ablest supporter in the House of Commons, had long before Hastings' return, been chairman of a Committee to investigate his conduct, and had reported upon it in terms of indignant severity. Hastings himself called upon Pitt after his return, and left him under an unpleasant conviction that he could not look to him for help. The friends of Hastings expected Pitt to act from political motives to please the king, and to disoblige the old coalition. He acted inconsistently with their expectations, but not inconsistently with himself or with his professions. He stated, and no doubt truly, that he would be glad to be excused from acting in the matter at all, but his position did not admit of it. Hastings' friends expected him to act from political and personal considerations in Hastings' favor. They now charge him with acting from similar considerations on the other side. It would have been impossible to avoid such imputations on one side or the other. There is no reason to doubt that he intended to act impartially and from his convictions. It is doubtful whether he did not indeed act right. It required a very broad mantle of charity to cover and excuse some portions of the career of Hastings; but the peers thought, and modern readers will be apt to think, that his merits so far overbalanced his faults, and his faults were so much the result of pressure and exigency, that Englishmen at least should have held him excused. The error of Pitt, if error he committed, was in attempting to be impartial. The whole prosecution was so mixed up with political party feelings; the crimes complained of were of a character so interwoven with political necessity, that one is inclined to wish that party power might have been rallied to the rescue. There are times and occasions when impartiality is neither tolerable to gods or men; when it is unnatural and detestable, and when its effects are equivalent to the grossest injustice. Yet impartiality is the besetting folly of just men, and sometimes tempts them to adjust the balance between right and wrong so very nicely as to outrage and shock every ordinary feeling of propriety. The trial of Hastings has been thus referred to, partly because it was a prominent event in the history of Pitt's career, and partly because it is one of the points where his enemies suppose that his character is most easily assailable. The guilt or innocence of Hastings can have no bearing upon the opinion to be formed of Pitt. There is absolutely no evidence tending to show that he acted from corrupt or dishonorable motives. There was no course he could have pursued to avoid imputations. Had he pursued the opposite course, he would have been charged with justifying great crimes in order to please the king, to attach to his interests a powerful criminal, and to crush the prosecutors because they were political opponents. He met the occasion that was forced upon him. Some of his arguments in the course of the trial excited wonder and astonishment at the clearness of his investigations and the grasp and tenacity of his memory. Among all the cares of administration, he found time to investigate the testimony for himself; and he pursued his course independently, sometimes refuting charges, sometimes silent, sometimes launching his highest powers of persuasion to secure condemnation where he thought condemnation was deserved. One noticeable effort of this great prosecution was to enlist the chief adversaries of Pitt in a perplexing and responsible business aside from ordinary political topics, and to leave Pitt comparatively free for the duties of administration. They were eager for the impeachment, and conscious of triumph when they got their charges cleverly before the peers. But years wore on, and the prosecution became a stale thing. They were like the man who won the elephant; they would be very much obliged to any one who would tell them what to do with it. Their impeachment finally died an ignoble death, and its authors were obliged to retire from their high-sounding charges, under the chagrin of anti-climax. то м A Ꭱ Y. I. 'THINE eyes are blue, heaven's loveliest hue The red and white on thy cheeks unite, Thy dark-brown hair, on thy neck so fair, In careless grace reposes; And thy teeth of snow through their portals show, II. But oh! whene'er thy voice I hear, Each gentle tone sweet Music's own, The charms that round thee hover? III. Let poets raise their incense-lays Far more than grace in form or face, Thy spirit, bright with heavenly light, Thy mind's pure charm, thy heart so warm The melodies of yore recall Games where the prince and peasant met, III. The dulcet flow of modern lays W. H. C. HOSMER. * AMONG Celtic nations, the Fear-Dana, or ruling-bard, sat at the king's right hand, wearing a golden torque. MY CAMPAIGN REMINISCENCES. 'BUT ninety-eight degrees, Fahrenheit - shade! Delightful climate this!' The exclamation was uttered by my bosom-chum, Tom R. As the thermometer then stood where the shade was, did not fully appear the assertion did not, in fact, seem quite borne out. Taking a sip of lukewarm water, just enough diluted to qualify it for killing unwholesome animalculæ, the speaker lit a fresh roll of the fragrant weed, and again threw himself upon the soft ground. We were within cannon-shot of the good city of Vera-Cruz, concealed from the admiring gaze of the Argus-eyed gentlemen who manned the batteries thereof, only by huge, treeless hills of sand, the accretion of long ages of stormy, blustering northers.' Upon reflection, lest some of my captious old mess-mates might cavil, the adjective good is recalled, and any epithet better suited to the true character of the place may be substituted. There was not a particle of shelter from the heat, as the sun beat down in a steady blaze, causing the skin to crack with very dryness, as, like the hot blast of a furnace, it penetrated the tented canvas. 'Like it! do you?' was the sole answer essayed, and that, like its predecessor, was an ejaculatory response, tinged with irony. One's selfcomplacency entirely left him as he longed for the cooling shades of the upper country, beneath those trees whose delicious fruits are always in season; and then compared such a state with the forlorn condition of being grilled like steaks. It was decidedly unpleasant. The imperturbability of my comrade was extremely provoking to all the panting multitude who glared upon him from tents which gave but the semblance of shadow, while they excluded any wandering breath of air that might be stirring. With the least puff from the sea, the atmosphere was filled with floating particles of sand and scaly dust. That, and the white, dazzling, arid surface of the loose, fluctuating soil, created a tendency to ophthalmia, which was in no way alleviated by the chilly nights, attended with heavy dews. Well, as we have seen, no body felt any disposition to talk, even; while the majority solaced themselves with the soothing influence of the weed. For the purpose of intercepting any faint stray breeze that should be softly stealing inland, several of the soldiers had crept to the ridge of the high sandhill; and there, their attention was called to, and riveted upon, some moving object, and two or three of the number imprudently rose at a full elevation. Get down, men! you'll attract the shot.' The order was sharply given by an officer. It was promptly obeyed. The upright figures vaulted backward, while all the others went rolling down the hill like so many boys at play. The order had, however, been rendered supererogatory by the sharpness of the look-out in the enemy's battery opposite, who, seeing the sworn foemen of his country, let fly a shell of heavy calibre. The flash gave barely time for each of our lads to imitate the example of Lorenzo de Medicis, who, at the siege of Mondolpho, ducked his head, and so saved it. He was counted none the less valiant for his agility; nor were our fellows, who were all good men and true; possessing sufficient judgment to avoid ducking their heads into the way, when too many shots were buzzing around, and the presence of mind to dodge a single one. The shell whisked through the ridge of the hill, the force of the concussion of air tearing up the sand for an extent of several feet, in its rapid course knocking down an officer's tent; then, burying itself in the ground, burst upward, and scattered abroad clouds of scorching sand, and a hail-storm of small pebbles. In extenuation of their imprudence, the soldiers said that a horseman was cantering across the plain between the doomed city and our position, and, from the coolness and confidence he displayed, while all the time a mark to be fired at from the walls, they argued that he was an emissary from the other army. It was proposed to take him prisoner if he should approach much nearer; and two active men set about the undertaking. 'Patricio, el soldado!'' exclaimed my native servant, in surprise. Nonsense! it's one of our own regiment; see the braid on his uniform!' said another. The boy was right, and so was the other, who had rebuked him. The cavalier had anticipated any command, as he espied the pro tem. chieftain of his company; and he rode up to the place where we stood, mounted on a horse whose fine looks even surpassed the impudence of its rider; and that is saying a great deal. With what consummate grace did that arch-scamp, Pat Noon, salute his officers as he drew up from a gallop! The fortune of war, and high living, had, by laying my captain temporarily on the shelf, placed me in command of a company; and to it belonged he of the elegant salute and brazen front. I had to sustain the dignity of place by taking the saucy fellow to task. For a few moments, there were serious designs of extra guard-duty for the reckless soldier, who had perilled the lives of so many of his houseless and horseless comrades. It raised one's ire to see what airs the knave took ; and the bottle of wrath was speedily uncorked for him. It was but fair play that he should have a hearing before severe measures were taken, and by common consent, the officers desisted from invective to await his explanation. Noon, dismounting, led the well-caparisoned horse to me, and tendered it for my acceptance. That put a new phase upon the matter. The story was short. A Mexican officer was crossing the plain at some distance beyond, and in a laudable spirit of zeal for public interest, Noon had watched his motions. They met; when, with no weapon but a bayonet, the soldier engaged him in combat, and defended himself so effectually, that he had escaped all serious injuries. His jacket was torn, to be sure; but in consideration of his gallantry, he was promised a present of another. Well, to continue, the narrative ended by the victorious knight carrying off the spoils of the vanquished. Had he slain the enemy? No! that would have been base; an act |